Advice for Advisors

I've been the advisor for a student club on my campus for fifteen years. As the years have progressed, I've noticed that the bureaucratic demands have only increased. To be more accurate, they've gotten worse, and I've gotten more frustrated. Sometime, perhaps when I'm feeling less wounded from the experience, I'll try to recount what happened in the spring when the club wanted to put on a drag show as a fundraiser. It was, simply put, a nightmare and one of the busiest times I've ever experienced as an advisor. I even started to think that that it might be institutional homophobia since the club is for LGBT students and their friends and supporters. However, when you receive an e-mail like the one below, you start to realize that it isn't at all personal. The bureaucracy treats everyone badly.

I received this e-mail from the person in charge of all of the clubs on campus. It was meant to give students some ideas for how they might "earn" some money for their club activities. It's not that unusual, frankly, because a lot of clubs and other groups at colleges and universities go to tapings of television shows. They just don't have to deal with as much paperwork as we do. You should know that the person who sent this e-mail is very well-intentioned, but as you can tell from the following, maybe a bit too hung up on forms.

"Here's a fun fundraising/event idea, however please keep in mind that such events should be planned at least 6 weeks in advance to meet the campus timelines and process requirement.

"(FYI....There won't be enough time to turnaround approvals for these October events, however, keep this type of event in mind for future.)

"For fundraising events such as this, please remember to:

• "Start planning at least 6 weeks in advance
• "Obtain information/agreement/co. forms from the taping co. Be sure to read the details very carefully. Pls check age requirement
• "Seek availability of appropriate advisor to attend/supervise event
• "Seek Club approval
• "Submit FC Pre-Approval Form for Club Events to Student Affairs with fundraising form
• "Once approved, submit Master Calendar request
• "Complete FC Agreement/Contract Packet and forward to Co to sign. This contract is needed back at FC Student Affairs at least 3 weeks prior to the event to obtain FC signatures (per the FC President, there are no exceptions)
• "Submit Field Trip Request with waivers/participant agreement forms to Student Affairs at least 6 working days prior to the event for campus approvals (for FC Students, Faculty and Staff only)
• "Once event is approved by the campus, then you can begin to promote the event, as normal (submit Distribution of Printed Materials form with copy of flier to Student Affairs; obtain signage approvals through Student Affairs)
• "Once payment is received from company, complete the reconciliation part of the copy of your initial fundraiser form (including advisor's signature) and submit it with the deposit form (with advisors signature) and payment to Student Affairs for processing.
• "Enjoy!"

Well, that should be simple enough, shouldn't it? I think that last bullet point must have been ironic. If you've survived all of the preceding steps of the process, you won't have the energy to enjoy your time at Chelsea Lately or Dancing with the Stars or Let's Make a Deal.

I have tried several times over the past few years to convince some other faculty or classified staff member to take over as the advisor to the club. We used to have four advisors. In fact, there were times when the advisors outnumbered the club members. That's actually how the LGBT employee group got started; we were talking together at a student meeting and decided to form our own organization. Times were simpler then, and more people were able to be involved in things like advising. Can you imagine finding a replacement now if she or he found out about what the school demands just to travel to a taping of a television show? And don't even ask what you'd need to submit if you wanted to take one of the school vans to the event.